How do I smooth out violins?

1)tube buffer
2)acoustic treatments
3)tape a square of toiler paper over the tweeter

The tube buffer/treatment combo certainly helped tame the violins through my system

Sai, thanks for the youtube link, Sai, as in Sai Babba? Emoting from Nirvana?

Or you could just spend a million bucks and get yourself some proper equipment (facetious)

Interesting.
I play the violin everyday. So does my son.
Reference real sound, and proceed from there.
Massed violins are hard to reproduce. The information is very complex and the ear is very sensitive.
I believe that there is no cutting corners for accurate reproduction. You can mask an error in the playback chain and make it more tolerable by adding more distortion but the original distortion and the added distortion can't be corrected once there. Stacking the distortions is like trying to correct for too much salt by adding more oregano to your soup.
Unfortunately, distortion creeps in everywhere. It must be minimized.
There is no free lunch. Cables ring, digital jitters, amps feedback, speakers make a mess, etc.
The only way I have improved playback is by minimizing distortion, not masking it.
It is not an art. It is science. Go from there.
This lesson repeats itself over and over again.
We are not monkeys typing Shakespeare, we have reason.
There are many ways to mess it up, only one way to get it right. Limit distortion!
-Mike

As I'd mentioned, I was experiencing the same issues with high massed strings in the 1kHz-3kHz region, with my two systems, which have very different component classes and room environments. The only thing they shared is a redbook D source and now passive preamps.

I mentioned getting an Empirical Audio Synchro Mesh reclocker (SPDIF in) and am very pleased with this excellent product, which helped. What has also been interesting is that I hooked up a cheap ($25) linear power supply to the SynchroMesh, taking the place of a switching supply wallwart, and that has really also been positive. Based on that experience, I am currently working on the theory that PART of the problem with higher frequency massed strings is the drawbacks of switched power supplies (SMPS). They s***. I'm now looking at a variety of power improvement products, testing the hypothesis that ac problems are a big issue. In the past, I had noticed positive improvements in this area from shielded power cables, by the way.

So my current assessment of the high strings issue in digital playback is that it has a complex set of origins:

1) Faulty recordings;
2) Redbook CD is either the cause or is particularly sensitive in this sound area to system problems.
3) Jitter - no doubt that this is a contributing factor;
4) Dirty power. I'm continuing to work on this. New fuses are ordered and I'm going to get audiophile receptacles. I am almost convinced this is another major contributing factor.

Re-reading this thread, one thing that struck me about Bojack's system is his patently inferior pre-amp. My personal suggestion for you Bojack is to try out a passive preamp. Very good units (Goldpoint, the Lightspeed Attenuator, etc) are well within your budget.

I'll update this as I learn more about the ac issues.

Bo...violin (string) sounds are actually "sawtoothe" waves.....extremely difficult to reproduce electronically. Its a rising pulse followed by a sharp drop....you need fast equipment to cope. ..here's some info that might be interesting. The hair on a bow has microscopic "thorns" along its length. When the performer draws the bow on the string, these thorns actually pluck the string, but then the pressure of the string on the bow immediately stops the string from vibrating....thus...the sawtoothe waveform.

Stringreen - That's actually a very interesting post and it taught me something, BUT the problem in my system is only apparent in orchestral music. Solo violin in that higher frequency range actually sounds exceptionally good in that range, massed violins exceptionally bad.